Exhibit: The 2018 Library Performance Revue

You might connect to old school days, remembering science fairs, art and music expos, or other special events commemorating the best of student work…. perhaps it was the second grade watercolor with prized black and white Heffer munching on dandelions; fourth grade robot constructed of painted cardboard and Christmas lights; eighth grade tri-fold on the safety of drinking water; or eleventh grade saxophone featuring Gershwin from center stage. When we celebrate our achievements, individually and collectively, we are inclined to think positively about our work — going from where we were, to where we are, and where we ideally want to be. What better time to reflect on performance as we round off a busy, but accomplished academic year and look ahead to a new one!

Say goodbye to questionnaires and ratings, hello to art. Taking annual staff performance review not just one, but two steps further, and with kudos to Library Administration and the Design Team, we present an original exhibition that re-imagines the work we accomplished in 2017-2018 — one that plays upon the concept of exposition. Come get a fresh look at administration, design, development, digitization, video, publishing, research, and services from multiple perspectives and vantage points through both team and individual displays, and you may just be a little bit surprised at the thinking that goes deep beyond our daily work, collaborative projects, and longer-term initiatives!

This year the library staff, including full-time, part-time, and student members, approached the annual performance review process by reviving a tradition from nineteenth century American public schools. Schools in that era created a variety of annual exhibitions and performance events to showcase the work of students and demonstrate to the local community that the school was having a positive impact. The 2018 Performance Revue is designed to provide a view of the work the library. Each element of the exhibit was created by one or more members of the library staff as a means of reflecting on their performance over the past twelve months.

The following works are on exhibit:

Relationship Funnel, by Administration

“The Relationship Funnel illustrates the mediating roles played by members of the library administration team as they interact with a variety of units and individuals outside the library and bring the contributions and needs of these groups to the entire library staff. The colors of the thirty-two balloons in the funnel represent the four members of the team (Chae – red, Gu – yellow, Hughes – green, Natriello – blue) while the size of the balloons indicates the relative weight of each relationship over the past year.”
— Hui Soo Chai, Chris Gu, Brian Hughes, Gary Natriello

Pointed Decisions, by the Design Team

“Working in design means a lot of iteration, especially as it pertains to education. We test our projects constantly, from posters and signage to digital and physical objects. By the time patrons of the library are presented with a product, an exhibit, or an event, it is probably units third even fifteen version. We also work with other teams in the library as well as outside collaborators to support projects and functions. Pointed Decisions is a collection of scraps, draws, and retired materials taken from library projects spanning 2018.The form is drawn from the iterative nature of design, man of the same shape repeated in various scales and patterns throughout the hall.The piece can be found ‘growing’ around the edges of the exhibit to emulate the subtle and organic nature of how we use design in the library. This piece can be assembled in any orientation, combination, and scale. The intention was to have it wind organically around the space and have proximity to the other pieces displayed, representing how Design is related to all elements of this exhibit space.”
— Trisha Barton, Renata Gaui, Ruta Kruliauskaite, Zoe Logan, Angela Perrone

A Digital Library Playground, by Development

“This exhibit is organized in three parts: The first area showcases some of the development team’s greatest accomplishments from this past year, including redesigns of the library website and Vialogues as well as the launch of the library’s firs-ever mobil app. It explains their process and workflow and reveals the technology powering their work. The second area introduces you to the people behind the screens. It gives you sense of who they are and why they love doing what they do. The third area demonstrates the commitment to delivering original and engaging learning experiences. You can see the in their Al-driven recommendation experiment and their vision for the future of search!” — Ziyin Feng, Iyob Gebremariam, Patrick Maherly, Sabarish Raghupathy, Srukian Riothu, Joann Vazquez, Ryan Wu

“Inspired by the data-driven yet human-centered stye of nonprofit annual reports, the Edlab research team has compiled their greatest hits into a display if statistics, animated graphics, and suer stories. This format gives viewers a small taste of the team’s most critical contribution to the Library: using facts and figures to piece together substantive narratives, which in turn inform the development of high-quality learning tools and resources. Ultimately, this exhibit not only illustrates the importance of research in driving scalable, meaningful impact, but also the researchers’ commitment to Library patrons, the broader TC community, and learners both near and far.” — Yo Chen, Cinthia Fabian, Xiang Liu, George Nantwi, Joann Vazquez, James Yang

“Learn to connect and share personal experiences via Rhizr. The Thai Culture Show project was created by using Rhizr, a digital communication tool available in the library and it was presented at Morningside Gardens community for a social event. Participants can experience in person the Thai culture by attending the event and also are able to continue the discussion about the culture and exchange questions and answers online via Rhizr. When the project is available for public access, people who are interested in “Thai culture” can learn and share their experiences via Rhizr.” — Usa Ungsunan

A Memory Theater Research Journey in Search of the Truth About Forgetting, by the Services Team

“The piece explores the concept of the memory theater, a variation on the memory palace, and its potential to promote and support library research through the use of components of immersive theater and mnemonic techniques. The piece investigates employing the Smith Learning Theater to convey students on a research journey and to provide the means, through spatial mnemonics (“the method of loci” or memory journey) to retrace their steps back to the resources and strategies they have discovered to be crucial to their research and to retrieve information they have themselves actively embedded in the structure of the Theater through their memory of it and of the experience. The research area chosen for this journey is the subject of forgetting — why, how,when, whether we forget — explored from multiple social science, science, and humanities disciplinary perspectives. The piece intends to present discrete modular spaces within the Theater, each dedicated to the search for and use of a type of resource (books, periodical literature, reviews of research, handbooks of research, e-collections) and each engaging the journeyer interactively in the discovery process. The memory journeyer is free to move from one modular space to another; there are, however, prompts or pathways that may lead the participant from one space to a related one or related ones. The ultimate dynamic of the memory theater may be the enactment of the interconnectedness of knowledge and of the mechanisms for discovering and later retrieving it. — Allen Foresta

“This is a comparison of the library’s new web site to the old one. The similarities and differences are explored.” — Wendy Elmer

Theater of Dreams, by the Services Team

“Using the metaphor of the famous soccer stadium, OLD TRAFFORD, this stadium-esque description of the Smith Learning Theater gives an overview of hoe dreams of patrons are transformed into a reality. The words inscribed on the soccer field illustrate how ideas move from several stages to achieve the final products (goals) of patrons.” — Malik Muftau

“This exhibit reinterprets the Today in History component of the Gottesman Libraries Education Program. From the founding the Boston Latin School in 1635 to International Literacy Day, recognized today, Time Eternally Present celebrates research, curation, and design, as it encourages us to re-connect the past and reflect on our continuing contributions to learning, teaching, and scholarship.” — Jennifer Govan